Situation Report on Sexual Violence Against Women and Children

Methodology and Data Verification

This report employs a mixed-methods approach to evaluate the state of child protection in Bangladesh. Quantitative data was synthesised from official Police Headquarters crime statistics, verified human rights monitoring data from Ain o Salish Kendra (ASK), and annual reporting by Bangladesh Mahila Parishad (BMP). These three datasets are maintained on different methodological bases – Police Headquarters figures reflect formal First Information Reports filed nationwide; ASK and BMP figures are compiled through media monitoring and direct field documentation – and are treated accordingly throughout this report.

Qualitative case analyses were selected based on three criteria: occurrence within the May 2026 review period, formal registration of a First Information Report, and secondary verification by independent fact-checking bodies or judicial magistrates. Court documents and confessional statements were cross-referenced with reporting from national media outlets to maximise factual reliability and mitigate single-source bias.

Section 1: Documented Incidents of May 2026

1.1 The Rape and Murder of Ramisa Akter, Pallabi, Dhaka (19 May 2026)

Victim: Ramisa Akter, female, age 8, second-grade student, Popular Model High School, Pallabi, Dhaka.

The suspect, Sohel Rana, reportedly lured the child into his room when she left her flat in the morning. He subsequently raped the girl and killed her by slitting her throat. Her decapitated body was found beneath a bed in his flat, with her severed head recovered inside a bucket in the bathroom. Local residents detained the suspect’s wife, Swapna Akter, at the scene, though Sohel managed to flee by cutting through a window grille.

Following an intense seven-hour manhunt, police apprehended Sohel Rana from Fatullah, Narayanganj. His wife, Swapna Akter, aged 26, was detained directly from the crime scene. Acting DMP Commissioner SN Nazrul Islam stated that initial forensic assumptions indicate the child suffered a sexual assault in the bathroom of the suspects’ flat before being killed. According to the DMP, Rana had planned to dispose of the child’s body to prevent detection by her family.

On 20 May 2026, Sohel Rana delivered a full confessional statement before Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Aminul Islam Junaid, admitting to raping and killing the child. His wife was also remanded to jail custody by a separate Metropolitan Magistrate.

1.2 The Rape of an 11-Year-Old Madrasa Student, Madan, Netrokona (Reported 4 May 2026)

Victim: Female child, age 11, madrasa student, Madan Upazila, Netrokona District.

The accused, Amanullah Mahmudi Sagar, established a women’s Qawmi madrasa in the area four years prior to the incident. The child studied at this institution while residing at her maternal grandfather’s home. Family members alleged the abuse began on 2 November of the preceding year. A First Information Report was filed on 30 April 2026. By the time the case came to public attention in early May 2026, the child had become pregnant as a result of the repeated assault.

Following his arrest by the Rapid Action Battalion in Gouripur, Mymensingh, the accused made a confessional statement regarding the crime. A Netrokona court ordered a DNA test after police submitted an application. Police produced the accused before the court following the conclusion of his remand period, and the court subsequently ordered him remanded to prison.

The child, who was 27 weeks pregnant at the time of the court proceedings, was placed under the custody of the Department of Social Services following a court order and transferred to the Sylhet Protection and Rehabilitation Centre for Vulnerable Girls for her security and medical care. The court order was issued based on a security petition filed by the girl’s mother.

1.3 Case Study in Investigative Obstruction: The Ireen Akter Murder (Faridpur, 30 April 2026)

Victim: Ireen Akter, female, age 7, Kafura area, Faridpur District.

While the primary incidents in this report highlight institutional failures in prevention and arrest, the recovery of seven-year-old Ireen Akter’s body on 30 April 2026 illustrates a secondary barrier to justice: information warfare. The investigation was severely complicated by the rapid spread of political disinformation on social media platforms. Fabricated reports falsely claimed the victim was the daughter of an Awami League leader who had been murdered by rival political activists in Gazipur. Fact-checking bodies were required to publicly debunk these claims to restore focus to the actual criminal investigation in Faridpur.

Section 2: The National Context

The three cases documented above do not exist in isolation. They emerge from a pattern of sustained and escalating violence that official and monitored data consistently confirms.

Police Headquarters data shows that 7,068 rape cases were filed nationwide in 2025, up from 5,566 in 2024 – an increase of more than 27 percent.^[1] These figures reflect formal FIRs filed under the Women and Children Repression Prevention Act and represent the broadest available measure of reported cases entering the criminal justice system.

Independent monitoring by Ain o Salish Kendra, which tracks cases through media documentation and direct field reporting, recorded 749 rape cases in 2025, up from 635 in 2024.^[2] Bangladesh Mahila Parishad, monitoring 15 national daily newspapers, documented 786 women and girls as victims of rape and gang rape in 2025, of whom 543 – approximately 69 percent – were girls under the age of 18.^[2] The convergence of these three distinct datasets confirms both the scale and the directional trend of the crisis.

The trend has continued into 2026. ASK reported that between 1 January and 20 May 2026 alone, at least 118 children were subjected to rape, with at least 46 further victims of attempted rape recorded in the same period.^[3] At least 17 children were killed either after rape or following failed rape attempts during these five months.

The judicial system faces a backlog that effectively operates as a structural denial of justice. Over 35,000 cases of violence against women and children have remained pending before the special Nari-O-Shishu Nirjatan Daman Tribunals for more than five years.^[4] Rights groups consistently note that official figures represent only a fraction of actual incidents, with underreporting widespread due to social stigma, fear of reprisal, distrust of law enforcement, and community pressure on victims and families to remain silent.

Section 3: Structural Analysis of Causative Factors

3.1 Institutional Impunity

A conviction rate so low as to be functionally negligible creates an environment in which perpetrators act without meaningful fear of legal consequence. A study jointly conducted by the Supreme Court of Bangladesh and BRAC, analysing 4,040 disposed cases across 42 tribunals in 32 districts between January and June 2025, found that the conviction rate in cases of violence against women and children stands at only 3 percent, while 70 percent of cases end in acquittal and 13 percent are settled through compromise.^[5] Although the law requires such cases to be disposed of within 180 working days, the same study found the average case duration to be 1,370 days – approximately 3.7 years – with each case scheduled for hearing an average of 22 times. The criminal justice system has not demonstrated the capacity to process these cases with the consistency and speed necessary to serve as a deterrent.

3.2 Absence of Child Safeguarding Standards in Educational Institutions

The Netrokona case is representative of a wider failure. Qawmi madrasas and other informal religious educational institutions operate without mandatory child protection policies, teacher vetting procedures, or government inspection mechanisms. Children placed in residential settings under the authority of a single adult are particularly exposed to risk.

3.3 Judicial Backlog as a Justice Barrier

Over 35,000 cases have been pending in the special tribunals for more than five years.^[4] Families who pursue cases face years of adjournments, rescheduling, and procedural delays. Many eventually withdraw, unable to sustain the financial and emotional cost of prolonged litigation. This backlog is not a temporary administrative inconvenience. It is a structural barrier to justice.

3.4 Delayed Law Enforcement Response

In the Netrokona case, the FIR was filed on 30 April 2026, but the arrest did not follow immediately. Delayed arrests after formal complaints allow accused persons the opportunity to flee, destroy evidence, or pressure victims’ families. This is a repeated pattern across districts.

3.5 Absence of a Formal Victim Protection Framework

Bangladesh does not have a comprehensive statute governing the protection of rape victims and witnesses from the point of complaint through to final judgment. In the Netrokona case, the child required a court order and a social services petition simply to be moved to a place of safety. This level of institutional difficulty in protecting a pregnant 11-year-old is a measure of the gap in the current legal framework.

3.6 Societal Barriers to Reporting

Social stigma, the practice of family-level mediation and settlement, and community pressure continue to suppress the number of cases formally reported. Victims and their families are frequently subjected to secondary harm through public scrutiny and blame. These conditions reduce accountability and embolden perpetrators.

Section 4: Recommendations

Conclusion

The cases documented in this report are not exceptional. They are representative. Ramisa Akter was eight years old and was killed in a neighbour’s flat in the capital city of Bangladesh. The eleven-year-old child in Netrokona was entrusted to a religious teacher and was abused for months before the state had any knowledge of the crime. Seven-year-old Ireen Akter’s body was recovered in Faridpur while political disinformation spread unchecked online.

Each of these cases points to the same conclusion. The state is not fulfilling its constitutional obligation to protect the lives, liberty, and dignity of women and children. Arrests following public outcry and ministerial statements about exemplary punishment are responses to visibility, not to the underlying failure of prevention, protection, and justice.

Constitution Watchdog calls on the Government of Bangladesh, the Supreme Court, the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs, and all relevant law enforcement agencies to treat the recommendations in this report as matters of urgent constitutional obligation, not as future policy considerations.

We will continue to document, monitor, and report until these obligations are met.